McLarenblog

Lawrence Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell joins Ian Masters to discuss his article at The Huffington Post “The Magnificent Seven”  What is shocking in the radio segment is Mr. Wilkerson is candid and seemingly honest in his evaluation of the Republican Party.  The most shocking view that he puts forth is that one of the Republican Party’s problem with President Obama is black prejudice.  I have suspected this for a long time but it seems that most everyone fails to talk about it.  What is more shocking is Mr. Wilkerson’s prediction if the Republicans take the white house and keep exercising personal self serving policies that only enrich the Republican oligarchs, the United States will fall into decay.

[Update: December 7, 2017, Ian Masters has moved his web site and I found that this radio show segment is not available currently.]  Listen to the radio show segment “The Magnificent Seven”

E-mail from Score Card to Professor Wilkerson:

WOW!  I listen to your segment with Ian Masters entitled “The Magnificent Seven” and you really come across as honest, intelligent and knowledgeable about what ails the United States.  You really do not state your mind bluntly.   I just love that.  I have suspected for quite a long time that Republicans are prejudice against blacks.  What is sort of disturbing, if true, is no one seems to want to mention this possibility.  You are the first one to bring this up (in my world).  Thank you again in a different perspective as it firms my blog approach (I am a blogger).   I am really disturbed in contemplating that a large segment of the United States population is simply stupid and if so, what do you do with that problem?  Thank you for sharing your views.  I hope to hear more from you.  Start a blog or better yet, write a current world situation book.

Professor Wilkerson’s reply:

Thank you for taking the time to wrote to me and to express your support and your views.  Our Founders were concerned about the same matter, i.e., how does one keep the electorate–the people–knowledgeable, competent, and able to cast a smart vote, or even ensure that the candidates available are the right ones for the positions, local, state, and national.   Thomas Jefferson actually stated that such was the reason he and others founded the University of Virgina and, as you may know, Jefferson had that founding put on his gravestone. It was one of his proudest achievements.  Jefferson also was a slaveholder, one who had sexual relations with his dead wife’s half-sister, Sally Hemmings, a slave herself–sexual relations that led to several children.  None of us is perfect, in other words.  We just have to keep trying.  I believe Jefferson was right about education.  It is the most important answer to the question of how to keep a democracy sound.  Ours is weak right now primarily because the people are weak–and they are weak primarily because there are so many among us who are ignorant, uneducated, and therefore vulnerable to the political charlatans like Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton.

Thanks again for writing.

Prof Lawrence Wilkerson